Seeing and Believing

A young girl waits for her father, the captain of a ship, to
come home. Through magination and faith the girl entertains
the possibility that the most important things to us--love
and faith--are often unseen and unheard. I love the dream-like
quality of this book, which, it seemed at times, almost illustrated
itself.

In the initial stages of planning the illustrations I happened to show Eliza some illustrations I was doing for Silver Moon; she liked the water nymphs so much that she introduced them into the text just so we could include them in the book. I think this is a good example of how a writer can work with the illustrator in the creation of picture books.

I find Eliza's stories interesting because the main characters remain curiously nameless. This gives hem a certain universality, highlighting the idea that the protagonists could very well be the reader. In this way Eliza's stories are like more modern versions of traditional fairy tales, though perhaps without the explicitily cautionary elements.